Time To Watch The Prisoner!

   October 5^th and it’s time to begin watching ‘the Prisoner,’ not to celebrate the 52^nd anniversary of series or anything like that, but to carry out an experiment at the same time. But why on October 5^th, because that’s the date on which ‘the Prisoner’ is abducted to the village. This screening of the series will be rather unorthodox, in that it will be in accordance with my own particular screening order as conveyed in my book ‘The Prisoner Dusted Down’ and taking place over a 15 month period. A screening order that takes into account dates, seasons of the year, certain external events which happened outside the village, and the relationship between certain episodes.

   So tonight it begins with ‘Arrival,’ then the next three episodes ‘Free For All’ ‘Dance of The Dead’ and ‘Checkmate’ will take place sometime time over the following three moths in order for ‘The Schizoid Man’ to be screened on Feb 10^th. Some would argue the point that ‘A B and C’ should be watched on Feb 10^th simply on the grounds of the date of the edition of The Tally Ho seen in ‘A B and C.’ But I would argue that the date is coincidental, that it’s the headline “Is No.2 Fit For Further Term?” which is the important thing in ‘A B and C’ and not the date. The fault being that the same copy of The Tally Ho having been used in both episodes, and has in the past led to the idea that both episodes take place at the same time, a scenario which I never subscribed to. So, ‘the Schizoid Man’ is soon followed by ‘Many Happy Returns’ watched at some point between February 20^th and March 19^th, because it would have taken No.6 a couple of days to construct his sea-going raft after having woken up on Feb 20^th to find the village deserted, and putting to sea on February 22^nd if he was to spend 25 days at sea to be washed up on the shore at Beachy Head on the south coast of England. Then add on March 18^th when No.6 finally arrived back in London, and March 19^th being the Prisoner’s birthday. And the screening will continue in that vein until it reaches its inevitable conclusion in December 2020.

Be seeing you